Nebraska becomes fourth team to earn 800th win

Oct 15, 2006 - 2:46 AM
MANHATTAN, Kansas (Ticker) -- Nebraska is now a member of an
elite club.

Zac Taylor threw for 134 yards and a touchdown and Marlon Lucky
ran for 83 yards and a score as the 21st-ranked Cornhuskers
cruised to a 21-3 victory over Kansas State in a Big 12
Conference matchup.

By posting its first win here since 1996, Nebraska (6-1, 3-0 Big
12 North) joined Michigan, Notre Dame and Texas as the only
Division I-A programs to have at least 800 victories.

"First off, it's great to be part of the 800th win in Nebraska
football history," Cornhuskers coach Bill Callahan said. "It's
a definite milestone and something that we're very proud to
contribute to tonight. We're awfully proud of the way our
players performed tonight."

It did not take long for the Cornhuskers, who snapped a
four-game losing streak here, to take control of the contest.

"It's very huge for us, that was our goal throughout fall camp,"
Nebraska nose guard Ndamukong Suh said of the win. "We wanted
to come out and win at Iowa State and Kansas State before going
back home to face Texas."

Nebraska defeated Iowa State, 28-14, on October 14 and will host
sixth-ranked Texas on October 21.

They jumped ahead for good on their opening drive when kicker
Jake Wesch hooked up with Hunter Teafatiller on a fake field
goal for a 17-yard score 3:54 into the contest.

"(The Cornhuskers) took their best shot on the opening drive,"
Kansas State coach Ron Prince said. "I was very impressed with
how the ball moved for them. We got down there, they lined up
for a field goal and they faked it. It was a very well executed
fake. We could have defended that better, and that put us
behind 7-0 in the start."

Taylor made it 14-0 by throwing a three-yard strike to Josh
Mueller with 11:02 left before halftime. In the third, Lucky
found a hole in the middle and broke away for a 40-yard TD run
for a 21-point advantage.

Nebraska's defense had four sacks and two interceptions while
allowing just 22 rushing yards.

"Establishing the line of scrimmage was a big thing for us. We
wanted to stop the run," Suh said. "One of our goals was to
make K-State one-dimensional. We wanted to keep their young
quarterback (Josh Freeman) in the pocket and go after him for
sacks."

Freeman completed 23-of-47 attempts for 272 yards and Jeff
Snodgrass kicked a 53-yard field goal for the Wildcats (4-3, 1-2
North), who had their three-game winning streak ended.